FLUXcycle Debut

Photo by Arin Fishkin

While we love building really Big Art that inspires and wows people, we started thinking about how nice it would be to have a piece that’s small and fun. Our criteria was to make something with a simple yet exciting interactive flame effect, something that’s mobile -- preferably on wheels, and something that’s small enough to fit in the back of a pick-up truck and go anywhere we wanted. Matt and Catie got together over the course of a week and built just what we were looking for: the FLUXcycle. These low-cost, high-impact sculptures have a simple design: a light-weight metal sculpture with an interactive flame effect on a trailer pulled by a bicycle.

The FLUXcycle debuted in November, first at the Dia de Los Muertos parade in San Francisco and

then at Art Murmur in Downtown Oakland. And it was a huge hit! Hundreds of kids and adults lined up to pull the handle on the interactive ‘poofer’ effect. It was also an amazing outreach tool, sparking conversation about our work and inspiring people to come to the shop to get involved. These pieces are an easy way for FLUX volunteers to develop and build a project from beginning to end in a very short time. We built the first one in 5 days with the help of four people, two of whom had never worked with us before. We can’t wait to build a fleet!